inMusic Brands, Inc. is an American enterprise that is the parent company for a family of brands of varying audio products used in the DJ, music production, live sound,

musical instrument A musical instrument is a device created or adapted to make Music, musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument. A person ...

, pro audio,

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

stage lighting Stage lighting is the craft of lighting as it applies to the production of theater, dance, opera, and other performance arts.

, and

consumer electronics Consumer electronics, also known as home electronics, are electronic devices intended for everyday household use. Consumer electronics include those used for entertainment, Communication, communications, and recreation. Historically, these prod ...

industries. The company's corporate headquarters are located in

Cumberland, Rhode Island Cumberland is the northeasternmost town in Providence County, Rhode Island, United States, first settled in 1635 and incorporated in 1746. The population was 36,405 at the 2020 census, making it the seventh-largest municipality and the largest ...

, with additional offices in Canada, Germany, United Kingdom, Taiwan, Japan, and Bulgaria.

History

Numark

In 1992, future inMusic founder and CEO Jack O’Donnell was working as Vice President of Sales at

Stanton Magnetics Stanton Magnetics, doing business as Stanton, is a business unit of inMusic Brands that designs and markets turntables, cartridges, DJ mixers, DJ media players, and DJ controllers. History Stanton Magnetics was founded in 1946 by Norman C ...

when he learned the assets of Numark Electronics were available for purchase. Founded in

Edison, New Jersey Edison is a Township (New Jersey), township located in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Situated in Central Jersey, Central New Jersey within the core of the state's Raritan River, Raritan Valley r ...

in 1971, Numark was among the earliest DJ equipment manufacturers, and responsible for innovations like the first

DJ mixer A DJ mixer is a type of audio mixing console used by disc jockeys (DJs) to control and manipulate multiple audio signals. Some DJs use the mixer to make seamless transitions from one song to another when they are playing records at a dance club. ...

with a built-in sampler (the DM1775) and the first dual-well CD player (the CD-5020). O’Donnell proposed to Stanton management that they should acquire Numark's assets, but they chose not to, and O’Donnell decided to resign from his position at Stanton and purchase Numark himself.

Alesis and more acquisitions

Under O’Donnell's management, Numark recovered and grew, and he found himself looking for new opportunities. In 2001 O’Donnell acquired Alesis, a company that had established itself in the recording market with affordable

effects Effect may refer to: * A result or change of something ** List of effects ** Cause and effect, an idiom describing causality Pharmacy and pharmacology * Drug effect, a change resulting from the administration of a drug ** Therapeutic effect, ...

and later the revolutionary ADAT digital tape recorder, as well as

drum machine A drum machine is an electronic musical instrument that creates percussion sounds, drum beats, and patterns. Drum machines may imitate drum kits or other percussion instruments, or produce unique sounds, such as synthesized electronic tones. A d ...

s and

synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

s. The following year he introduced the ION Audio brand, focused on entry-level and

products. In 2005, O’Donnell purchased the Akai Professional Musical Instrument division (previously spun off from Akai Electronics). Musical instrument designer

Roger Linn Roger Curtis Linn is an American designer of electronic musical instruments and equipment. He is the designer of the LM-1, the first drum machine to use samples, and the MPC sampler, which had a major influence on the development of hip hop ...

has accused that immediately following the acquisition, Akai ceased all royalty payments owed to him, and that O'Donnell sent legal threats warning him away from attempting to collect further royalties. His company additionally acquired DJ software brand Mixmeister in 2007 and Alto Professional in 2010. Despite continuing to sell the product through Numark, development of MixMeister was subsequently abandoned with the last update being v7.7.1 in 2015.

M-Audio

In February 2012 O’Donnell acquired

software synthesizer A software synthesizer or softsynth is a computer program that generates digital audio, usually for music. Computer software that can create sounds or music is not new, but advances in processing speed now allow softsynths to accomplish the same t ...

company Sonivox, and in July of the same year, he acquired

M-Audio M-Audio (formerly Midiman) is a business unit of inMusic Brands that designs and markets audio and MIDI interfaces, keyboards and MIDI controllers, synthesizers, loudspeakers, studio monitors, digital DJ systems, microphones, and music so ...

and the AIR Software Group from Avid Technology, Inc. for $17 million.

Further growth

In April 2014, inMusic acquired Denon DJ, Denon Professional and Marantz Professional from D&M Holdings, who retained the non-professional consumer divisions of those brands. In August 2015, the company launched a new brand of

lighting Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylight. ...

products, MARQ. In July 2016, inMusic acquired

Rane Corporation Rane Corporation is an American pro audio equipment manufacturer. Located in Mukilteo, Washington, it was made up of former employees of Phase Linear Phase Linear was an audio equipment manufacturer founded by Bob Carver and Steve Johnston ...

. In 2017, leveraging the legacy of the Akai pedal of the same name, inMusic launched a new line of guitar effects processing products branded HeadRush. In May 2018, the inMusic company Denon DJ acquired SoundSwitch. In April 2020, inMusic acquired

ROLI ROLI is a London-based music technology company known for its innovative high tech musical instruments, particularly the ROLI Seaboard, a MIDI controller with soft, rubbery keys and continuous, rather than discrete, pitches, and pitch-bending ca ...

's subsidiary FXpansion's drum software instrument BFD. In May of the same year, inMusic acquired Stanton from Gibson Brands. In June 2023, inMusic acquired Moog.

Brands

*2getheraudio *AIR Music Technology *

Akai Professional Akai (, ) is a Japanese brand & former electronics manufacturer, established as Akai Electric Company Ltd in Tokyo in 1929. It was best known outside Japan for its tape recorders during the 1960s and 1970s. The company became bankrupt in 2000 ...

* Alesis *Alto Professional *Arkaos *BFD *Denon Professional *Denon DJ *Engine DJ *HeadRush * ION Audio *

*Marantz Professional *MARQ Lighting *MixMeister *

Moog Music Moog Music Inc. ( ) is an American synthesizer company based in Asheville, North Carolina. It was founded in 1953 as R. A. Moog Co. by Robert Moog and his father and was renamed Moog Music in 1972. Its early instruments included the Moog sy ...

*Numark * Rane *Sonivox *SoundSwitch * Stanton

References

{{Reflist

External links

inMusic Brands official website
Music equipment manufacturers Manufacturers of professional audio equipment DJ equipment Audio equipment manufacturers of the United States